Significant offensive impacts from first- and second-year players are usually few and far between.

However, after Mike Trout and Bryce Harper took the baseball world by storm in 2012, fantasy owners were expecting more big time performances from youngsters in 2013.

Aside from Wil Myers (.293-13-53) and Yasiel Puig (.319-19-42), fantasy owners were not really offered much help from rookies in 2013.

There are a couple of reasons why the rookie crop of hitters lagged behind the arms that made an early splash.

First of all, it generally takes some time - perhaps a year or even two - before players can contribute offensively on a consistent basis at the Major League level. Guys like Jurickson Profar (.234-6-26) and Jackie Bradley Jr. (.189-3-10) can certainly fit under that category.

Secondly, we didn't get to dig too deep into the crop of elite offensive prospects. Oscar Taveras didn't play an inning in the bigs, Xander Bogaerts only played 18 regular season games before hitting .296/.412/.481 in 27 postseason at-bats, and Billy Hamilton had almost as many stolen bases (13) as he did at-bats (19).

Meanwhile, highly-touted prospects such as Byron Buxton, Miguel Sano, and Javier Baez spent the entire 2013 season in the minors and are expected get some more seasoning before hitting the bigs in 2014. Fantasy owners should keep this in mind before calling their names on draft day.

Fantasy owners chasing rookies in 2014 will likely face a similar landscape as most of the recent seasons. There will be a couple who really come out of the gate hot, but most of them will struggle - as expected - and hurt those who invest too heavily in them.

Second-year players, while still somewhat risky, are better investments than their rookie counterparts. Jean Segura and Manny Machado showed the type of jump a talented player can make after a getting a taste of big league action in the year prior. Even those two struggled mightily in the second half though, so fantasy owners should still exercise caution when bidding on sophomores in 2014.